The purpose of this study was to investigate novices learning to use a mission planning system. Novice participants received one training session, followed by three test sessions. This was compared to expert performance. During the test sessions, all participants were required to "think aloud", based on Ericsson and Simon's (Ericsson, K.A. and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a metaphorical interface on germane cognitive load in Web-based instruction. Based on cognitive load theory, germane cognitive load is a cognitive investment for schema construction and automation. A new instrument developed in a previous study was used to measure students' mental activities…

This article criticises the role the mass media has played in constructing an idea of the Other, that is, people outside the national mainstream or other nationalities. It explains how the media promote or hinder a positive outlook on cultural diversity. Based on a review of the scholarly debate on media representations of Others, it identifies…

The consideration of threshold concepts is offered in the context of biological education as a theoretical framework that may have utility in the teaching and learning of biology at all levels. Threshold concepts may provide a mechanism to explain the observed punctuated nature of conceptual change. This perspective raises the profile of periods…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of preservice science teachers' knowledge structures in the domain of oxidation and reduction chemistry. Knowledge structures were elicited through video-recorded semi-structured interviews before and after the unit of instruction, and analyzed using a visual flow map representation.…

As people attempt to make sense of the world, they develop personal knowledge structures. These structures often contain misconceptions--inaccurate or incomplete information--that are highly resistant to change because existing knowledge networks must be restructured to accommodate counterintuitive information in a process known as conceptual…

The development of rich, reliable, and robust measures of the composition, structure, and stability of student thinking about core scientific ideas (such as natural selection) remains a complex challenge facing science educators. In their recent article (Nehm & Schonfeld 2008), the authors explored the strengths, weaknesses, and insights provided…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a holistic understanding of quality in higher education which reveals the current debates about accreditation or quality process standards as insufficient, and to propose an enhanced model for quality culture in educational organisations. Design/methodology/approach: The conceptual framework is…

Explaining how the cognitive system can create new structures has been a major challenge for cognitive science. Self-organization from the theory of nonlinear dynamics offers an account of this remarkable phenomenon. Two studies provide an initial test of the hypothesis that the emergence of new cognitive structure follows the same universal…

This study examines the interaction effect of age in L2 attainment. It explores whether success in foreign language learning at early childhood grades varies depending on age. It also addresses the beliefs of foreign language teachers regarding the variables under review. Eighty-three 11 year-old language learners who started learning English at…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe, measure, compare, and contrast the perceptions of elementary teachers and principals regarding the degree to which the schools in which they are employed have implemented learning organizations conforming to Senge's (1990) 5 disciplines: mental models, personal mastery, shared vision, team…

Concept mapping is discussed as a tool for the visualisation of knowledge structures that can be exploited within biological education. Application of this tool makes it possible to relate the structure of the curriculum to the structure of the discipline, in order to support the development of robust student knowledge structures in ways that…

Radical constructivists advocate discovery-based pedagogical regimes that enable students to incrementally and continuously adapt their cognitive structures to the instrumented cultural environment. Some sociocultural theorists, however, maintain that learning implies discontinuity in conceptual development, because novices must appropriate expert…

This study investigates the ongoing debate in the conceptual change literature between unitary and elemental perspectives on students' knowledge structure coherence. More specifically, the current study explores two potential explanations for the conflicting results reported by Ioannides and Vosniadou (2002)and diSessa, Gillespie, and Esterly…

This paper seeks to establish a research framework for an investigation into the extent to which pupils are able to visualise figural cues in multiple ways within the context of pattern generalisation. Enactivism, along with the constructs of knowledge objectification and figural apprehension, are identified as forming an ideal theoretical…